Nicole: I still love Tom

Nicole Kidman has spoken of her undying love for former husband Tom Cruise.

'He was huge; still is. He was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him,' she told a magazine.

Cruise, whose fianceè Katie Holmes gave birth to their first child three weeks ago, was married to Miss Kidman for ten years.

He filed for divorce in February 2001 citing irreconcilable differences and the split was finalised later that year.

Yesterday Miss Kidman, 38, described the experience as 'a major shock'.

'I always knew the rug was going to be taken out from underneath me at some stage,' she said. 'But I didn't think it was going to happen in the way it happened. I had seen my mother battle breast cancer, so

I had a fear of my health being jeopardised - that was really where I was thinking mine would come.

'I knew I was going to get hit with something. But I think a divorce, and the demise of what your family is, is a little death in itself.'

Cruise and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella, now 13, and Connor, now 11.

'And if my children choose to go find them at some stage, I can't wait. Because - it's the weirdest thing - I actually feel they're very connected to us as a big, strange family, and whether they choose to search for them or not, who knows.'

Miss Kidman, who stars in the upcoming movie Fur about photographer Diane Arbus, was elusive about her romantic life but is reported to be dating country singer Keith Urban, 38.

'I'm pretty careful about who I share my life with,' she said. 'I

surround myself with truthful, kind people, most of whom are not in the business.

'It's the life I want to have when I'm an old woman with long, grey hair.'

Cruise's first natural child, a daughter named Suri, was born to Miss Holmes, 27, in a California hospital on April 18.

The couple were engaged last June and Cruise says they will marry later this year.

Miss Kidman was among the first to congratulate Miss Holmes on the birth, though in doing so she failed to mention her former husband.

In a statement she said: 'I hope both mother and baby are doing well.'

She and Cruise were said to have argued a few days before the birth as he wanted Isabella and Connor to be present for the delivery while Miss Kidman objected.

Their divorce was settled with little wrangling. She kept a million-pound California mansion and waterfront home in Sydney, while he retained a 280-acre estate in Colorado which he owned before they married, as well as his prized aeroplanes, including a £ 17million Gulfstream IV jet.

Cruise's latest movie, Mission: Impossible III, took £26million on its U.S. opening at the weekend, below industry expectations.